The Crown
by KayNKSal
Summary: One Prince. The chance to fall in love. Behold the competition of a lifetime. But to one, it was a chance she never wanted to take.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto**

**Note: Sasusaku is finally canon. I am obsessed with **_**The Selection **_**Series. **

**Summary: One Prince. The chance to fall in love. Behold the competition of a lifetime. But to one, it was a chance she never wanted to take.**

* * *

><p><strong>The Crown<strong>

_"You don't need a prince_

_to be a princess."_

_- Zayn Malik_

* * *

><p>"SAKURA!" I jumped out of the world I was in when I heard my best friend, Yamanka Ino, enter my room. I looked to the doorway to see her in a pale purple dress with blonde hair in a messy bun. She still looked perfect. Ino smiled and came over to sit on my bed. I fixed myself from a laying position into a sitting one while moving my books to the right side of myself.<p>

"What's up, Ino?" I asked, smoothing down my pink hair and adjusting my rectangular framed glasses.

"Why do you still wear those?" She grabbed the glasses from my face and held them with a look of disgust. "You have such beautiful emerald eyes, and you cover them with lenses."

"Maybe because they are my reading glasses and before you came screaming into my house, I was reading." I showed her a hard-cover book that had a picture of a warrior. "Now what's up?"

"It's Prince Naruto's selection time!" She sighed dreamily. "He has finally come to age to choose his wife."

"Choose?" I asked and Ino looked at me as if I was dumb. "I mean, doesn't he want to fall in love, not force himself too?"

"He'll fall in love with one of the candidates, I mean, that's what happened with King Minato and Queen Kushina when the King had his selection."

I raised an eyebrow at the word selection, what was this selection? Do they look through catalogs of every girl in all of the nations and suddenly choose a woman to marry him? "Selection?" I asked and Ino rolled her eyes with a sigh.

"You might be intelligent," my eyes widened and giggled at the big word she normally wouldn't use. "But you don't know anything. What's behind that big forehead of yours?" I glared and raised a hand to touch my five-head. "Anyway, the selection is when twenty-five girls are chosen to stay in the palace with the ROYAL family where they all compete for Prince Naruto. The Prince is who choses which girls are kicked off or staying. Only the prince. The King and Queen can have a say, but it comes down to the Prince all in all."

"How are the twenty-five girls chosen?" She pulled out two envelopes and waved them around in the air. I raised an eyebrow, "Hmm?"

"I have two applications for the lottery, you fill them out and turn them into the post office. Then in a few weeks, we find out the twenty-five girls on television." She handed me one envelope, and smiled widely. "I don't have two for just any reason, I got one for you to fill out too."

"Ino, I don't think the selection is for me. Besides, I'm already in love." I hand the envelope back and grabbed a book instead.

"Yeah, yeah. Sakura. Books aren't people, and you aren't in love with them." She shoves the envelope back.

"B-but..."

"But nothing, at least do it. I mean the chance are in the millions of being actually chosen. Besides if you really were in love, then how come I never met the guy? I am your best friend for crying out loud." She had a pained look in her sapphire blue eyes and got up from my bed. "Just think about it, okay? I have to go now, mother wants me to watch over the shop. Bye!" I watched as she exited and walked down the hallway.

I turned the envelope around in my hand and set it on my bedside. My eyes lingered on it before abruptly turned my head away from it. I seriously can't be contemplating it, I already had a perfect boyfriend that I was in love with.

I got off from my bed, maybe it was time I get up. I walked over to my closet and grabbed a red floral printed day dress. I slipped it on with a pair of brown sandals and gave myself a look over in the mirror. I ran a hand through my straight hair and was semi-pleased with my appearance.

I wasn't in your face gorgeous like Ino, I was a kind of pretty that grew on you. A pretty that didn't shine right in your face, a pretty that grew in little sparks until it gained the form of a star. I grabbed my book bag and picked up my reading glasses that Ino dropped onto the floor. I exited the house after I kissed my mother good-bye.

I didn't make it out to the sidewalk before bumping into someone. I scorned my clumsy-like nature and looked up to say sorry to the victim. "I am so sorry, I should've watched out, ugh, I am such a clusmy person..." The person chuckled as I rambled on and on, and they grabbed me by my arms. I was silenced and saw that my boyfriend, Suke, was the one I had bumped into.

I giggled as I reached to touch his inky black hair and looked into his similar colored eyes. I have to say I hit the lottery when I met Suke. He was the most gorgeous guy I had ever seen in my entire life, even more than Prince Naruto. Suke looked like he was made for the royalty life, but he was just a labor worker. But I removed my hand from his hair when I realized that he was here in front of my house, when my mom was still present. My mother was the best teacher in the village and she wouldn't approve of me falling in love with someone lower than myself.

He raised an elegant eyebrow when I hit his arm- muscular arm- as hard as I could. "Suke! What are you doing here? My mother is home, you know she can't see you." I looked up to see him with a flash of hurt in his eyes. "Don't give me that! You know I love you, but my mother. You know how she is!"

"I just wanted to see you before I went to my next job." He poked my forehead, a gesture that I knew how close it was to his heart. It was used by his brother when he younger and before he had died honorably in battle. I glared at him as I rubbed the spot he had poked. "I'll see you tonight?"

I nodded and gave him a kiss on the cheek as fast as I could. "Bye, Suke." He nodded and I watched as he walked in the other direction.

Suke and I had been dating secretly for a year and few months now. We met when he hadwork at the local clinic I was volunteering at. At first impression, we didn't leave a great one on each other. He had been- how to say this nicely?- an asshole. He had one giant pole stuck up his arse, and I wasn't perfect either. I was annoying and semi-controlling, with an abusive nature. But it was something that had drawn us together and we had clicked right away.

But he was labor worker and I was the daughter of village royalty basically with my mom being the best educator in the village, and it was frowned upon for a lady or man to marry someone below themselves. That's why we have been going out in secret for a while now, but I have to say I am in love with him and nothing can change that.

* * *

><p>"Ah, Sakura, you're finally home from the clinic. How was it?" My mother asked as I hanged up my book bag. I walked over to the dining room to see my father sitting at the far end reading the news, and my mother carrying a plate of assorted desserts.<p>

"It was fine, except for a patient getting out of hand. I swear, we need to get the man on new medications." My mother giggled as she ushered me to sit down at the table, I grabbed a chair and sat. I always wondered why we had such long dinner table when there were only three of us.

"So I was in your room, and I found this on your bedside!" She waved the Selection envelope and waved it in the air, just like Ino. I tried to grab the envelope from her hand, but she moved it away.

"What were you doing it my room?! That is an invasion of privacy!" I shouted as I kicked back my chair and pointed an accusing finger at her.

"Calm yourself, Sakura! Sit yourself down and listen!" I obeyed and picked up my chair, sat back down. "Now, I will continue. This is the perfect solution to all of our problems, you need to enter. We need the money and the exposure will lift my educating status."

"But I don't want to enter."

"Oh please, Sakura, you're father is still injured and can barely work at the office. We would need the extra money, save up for a rainy day. It is a great investment, and a perfect opportunity for yourself. Maybe settle down?"

"Mother..."

"Sakura-chan, please think about it?"

I nodded as she handed me back the envelope, and I left to go to my room. I untied my hair that I had to have up a the clinic and set the tie on my dresser. I set the application along with it, and I moved over to my bed and dramatically fell back onto it. I rubbed my pale hands all over my face and did a silent scream.

I jumped when I heard a knock on my window and walked over to see Suke standing outside. I gave him a signal to wait a moment and went over to close my door. I walked back over, opened the window for him, and he climbed inside. I kissed him on the check and we both went to go sit on my bed.

"How was the clinic?" He asked quietly, he knew to be cautious.

"It was fine, how was the job?"

"Tiring, but it was high-paying." I nodded and held his large calloused hand, I rubbed my thumb over the top. "What's wrong, Sakura?" I sighed and shrugged.

"You know about the Selection?" He nodded. "Well, Ino and my mother want me to fill out an application. My mother said it would bring benefits to the family and such."

"Maybe you should do it," he replied as he grabbed both my hands.

"But I don't want to be with a prince when I have you. I don't want to be the princess of the nations, I want to just be yours." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, and reopened them. "I don't want to lose you."

"Sakura, maybe this is a calling. Maybe this is saying that we aren't meant to be and you have a chance at being something better." I blinked back the tears.

"Don't you say that. I love you. Forget my mother, I am over it. I am fine with losing my status and living in a hut with you."

"I can't do that to you, it's over..." he whispered, and went to wipe a tear from my eyes. "Just fill out the application, okay? It's a chance." He got up and exited through the window. I couldn't call after him because of my parents, and I just choked on my tears. I wallowed in my self pity and it took a few minutes to regain my composure. I rubbed my eyes tiredly before grabbing the application off the dresser.

Maybe I could give it a shot, I could fill it out for Suke and when I don't get chosen...we could get back together. I ripped open the envelope and grabbed a pen.

* * *

><p><em><strong>The Selection Application<strong>_

** Hello, applicant, you are reading and filling this out because you want to be apart of the Selection for Prince Uzumaki Naruto, the heir of King Minato and Queen Kushina. Please drop this application at your nearest post office. **

** If you are chosen for the Selection, you must abide by these rules.**

** 1. You are now a property of Prince Uzumaki Naruto, and if you are caught falling in love with another man while you're still in the selection- that would be counted as treason. Which will result in death.**

** 2. You will follow all rules that are required at the palace. **

** 3. You will obey Prince Naruto and do anything he asks. ANYTHING!**

** 4. You cannot leave the palace on your own accord. Yo must be dismissed by the prince himself. **

** 5. Do not go to the prince without an invitation. **

** 6. If you are found breaking any law, you will subject to the punishment that the offense calls for. You are NOT above the law. **

** 7. Must not wear any clothes or eat food that is not provivded by the palace.**

** 8. On Fridays, the Report will be on and you are to be corteous. **

** 9. For each week you stay at the palace, your family will be compensated. **

** 10. If you make it to the elite, you will learn the obiligations of becoming a princess, bt not before.**

** 11. If you win, you will marry Prince Naruto and become the crowned princess.**

**Now that is out of the way, please begin to fill out the rest of the application. **

**Name: **Sakura Haruno

**Date of Birth: **March 28

` **Age: **17

**Do you have any offenses to the law?: **No

**Do you understand the rules of the Selection?: **Yes

* * *

><p>Once I finished the application, I refolded it and put it back into the envelope. I sighed and looked back at the window. 'I am doing this for you, Suke.' I thought before setting it onto my bedside table and falling to sleep.<p>

* * *

><p><strong>I hope you liked the new story.<strong>

**Any guesses on who Suke is? **

**What girls are entering? Who are going to be chosen?**

**Anyway, please review! It makes me want to update faster, if this is a big hit. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: DNON**

**The Crown**

**Chapter 2**

_**"My soul has painted like the wings of butterflies,**_

_**Fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die,**_

_**I can fly, my friends...**_

* * *

><p>I was cleaning the dishes, when I heard my mother screaming and jumping around. I guess it was time for the nominations for the Selection. It had been a few weeks since I had turned in my application and saw Suke for the last time. He didn't even have the respect to come by and say goodbye, or to even give me a heads up about him suddenly leaving the village. My heart ached for a couple of days that I had to fake a sickness from keeping my mother from becoming suspicious.<p>

"Sakura!" I turned to see Ino enter into the kitchen with a basket of sweets and sake. She was here to come watch the nominations with my family and me.

"Hello, Ino." I greeted her as I dried my hands on my day dress. I didn't get the chance to change after coming home from the clinic. The work at the clinic had tired me out greatly, and I had taken a very long nap.

"Come on, the selection is on. I can hear your mother groaning about the girls chosen so far." I smiled and followed Ino into the family room. I took a seat with Ino on the couch and grabbed a chocolate bar from the basket.

"Oh Ino, I hope that sake is for me." My mother said and raised an eyebrow. Ino nodded before handing it to her, but I can tell there was a resistence. "Aw, thank you, Ino." Taking the sake, she headed into the kitchen to pour herself a glass.

"The next nominee..." We all turned back to the television. "...Hinata Hyugga." A photo of a blue haired beauty was shown. She had very light blue eyes and a shy smile, and her pale skin had a hint of pink. She looked like she was already royalty.

"Man, she is so pretty. Why can't I be that pretty?!" I giggled at Ino's complaints and shook my head.

"Shut up. You're already pretty, Ino." She smiled and flipped her hair in a 'I know I am' way.

"The next nominee is Tenten Tenshi..." A photo of a brown haired girl with the same colored eyes showed up on the screen. Her hair was styled into two buns on the top of her head and she had very tan skin. "...Temari Subaku..." A picture of a blonde girl with fair complexion and hair tied into four pigtails.

"Ugh, she doesn't look that pretty." Ino muttered when Temari's photo left the screen.

"The twentieth candidate is..." I yawned, this Selection is getting a bit too long. "...Sakura Haruno."

Then everything was blocked out and I felt like gasping for air. That couldn't be right! This is maybe a dream, I am still in my nap. I sensed Ino throwing the basket off her lap and jumping up and down. She was shaking me with such force and my mother looked like she was screaming. My father was clapping and shaking his head, laughing.

"SAKURA! YOU'RE ON THE SELECTION!" Finally, the sound had came back and so did my sense of reality. "YOU'RE ON IT!"

"There must be a mistake," I replied, shaking my head. I turned back to the television to see a picture of myself, it was a picture that Suke had taken of me. It was one of my favorites.

"Nope, you were selected! Omg, my best friend has a chance of becoming royalty!" Ino wa clasping hr hands while jumping up and down. I've only seen Ino like this if there was a shoe sale in the village.

My mother brought me into a hug, "I've always known you were special!"

* * *

><p>Two days later, a gray haired man named Kakashi came to the house to go over the selection. He was the royal advisor and tutor to the royal family, and quite man. He had what looked like a porn book in his back pocket as I followed behind him into the house.<p>

"Ah, what a nice little house, Sakura-chan." He said as stood in the middle of the hall. My mother came rushing down the hall to greet him. "Ah, Mebuki, an honor to see you again."

"Huh? You know my mother?" I raised an eyebrow as she blushed heavily.

"Oh yeah, quite the lady back then." He smirked and I rolled my eyes as my mother began to blush even harder. "So let's get down to business, Sakura-chan."

"Ah, we must." My mother led Kakashi and I into the formal dining room. We all sat down, my mother and I facing Kakashi on one side.

"So Sakura, I believe you remember the rules from the applications?" I nodded and he let out a relieved sigh. "Great, I thought I would have to go over it again." I let out a giggle, and soon he let out a chuckle too.

"You have today to pack up and get ready to leave for the castle tomorrow. Please dress in the best clothes you own to arrive for your boat, because we will be recording your guy's journey to the castle. It will air on the following Friday. Any questions?"

"Nope, I don't believe so..." I replied.

"When will we be getting our check?" My mother asked, blunt. I blushed in embarassment, and in my head scorned my mother.

"Right now, just sign here."

My mother and I waved bye to Kakashi as he rode off in a carriage. Tonight was my last night in my native village. The last time I was going to see my family, Ino, the clinic, and Suke-if he came back after I leave. I left to go to my room to start packing up and practicing my fakest smile yet.

* * *

><p>"Ah, Sasuke!" I looked to see Kakashi returning from his meetings with the Selection girls.<p>

"Hn?" I questioned as I wiped the sweat from my brow. I was training since I didn't have much time to train when I stayed in Konoha.

"She's one beautiful girl." Then he walked away with a smirk as I stood frozen in place.

"I know," I muttered before returning back to the gruesome training.

* * *

><p><strong>I know it was short, but I wanted to get this chapter out before I go back to school. <strong>

** Sasuke is Suke! Shocking? Not really.**

** I was so close to making Sai be Suke ( hence the quote the top of the chapter bout painting) , but I felt that it would be a lot of work and ooc to fit that into the plot. So I just stuck with Sasuke as Suke. **

** Anyway, thank you for the great reviews from the last chapter!**  
><strong> Please Review, it makes me want to update faster. <strong>


End file.
